Holidaze

Hello! I hope your week has been going better than the thought of a rendition of the musical "Chicago" performed by specially trained pygmy bunnies.

One excited reader, Dan, sent this picture of his copy brand new copy of "Life is a Circus Run by a Platypus:"

Thanks for reading and sharing, Dan!

Thanksgiving is next week, which means I must finally admit, as I have been in denial since late October, that the holidays are upon us.

  

As much as I would love to hold onto my Grinchy attitude until at least next Thursday, the fact that we threw our holiday party for our participants yesterday kind of put the kibosh on that. 

So, in the spirit of every holiday between Thanksgiving and New Years, I donned my ugly sweater and set off to work to decorate and be merry, while not allowing myself to be killed by a giant fake Christmas tree.

What you can't tell in the picture is that this sweater sparkles. My ADHD kicked in super hard that day and I caught myself being distracted by my own sweater multiple times.

We planned for 60 people to show up, we got somewhere between 80 and 100. Somehow we managed to feed everyone and have enough crafts for all of the kids to participate. 

My coworkers made one small error yesterday. I warned them, "I am not good with kids. No, really, anyone under the age of about twelve and I do not get along well."

All of my coworkers laughed it off. How could I not be good with kids, after all I often work with adults who act like children? 

Their disbelief in my lack of child handling abilities translated into me being placed in charge of a crafting station where kids could come and make a simple ornament. After about ten minutes I was completely covered in glitter and looked like I had just thrown a rave with crafting supplies. 

One little boy walked up to me and I smiled and asked, "Would you like to make an ornament?"

I swear, that was all I said, "Would you like to make an ornament?"

He completely melted down and started sobbing at the top of his little lungs (by the way I think kids have more lung capacity than an elephant, just saying, I'm not sure he ever took a breath). 

The mother was looking at me like she expected me to do something. Having no clue what to do I just said, "So... that's a no on making an ornament then?"

My coworkers decided I was probably better at helping keep the food line moving smoothly instead. Overall, though, it was a success, even despite one little kid pulling the fire alarm. I'm glad that we were able to provide some holiday fun for our ladies and their families. 

Speaking of which, in the spirit of the holidays I have decided to donate half of what I make from "Life is a Circus Run by a Platypus" during the months of November and December to help support the work of the YWCA. 

The YWCA helps women, men and their families who are victims of domestic violence, families facing homelessness, those facing discrimination and a variety of other disenfranchised populations rebuild their lives. I'm choosing to donate to this organization because I believe in their mission to help a person not only survive adversity, but continue on to thrive. If you want to see the impact this organization is having check this video out. So if you buy a book, know that you are also supporting an excellent cause!

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderfully restful week and enjoy a heavy dose of turkey on Thanksgiving! 

I can always be found on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads!